Please don't spray them. Help us save the much needed and important Honey Bee!

Please read the information below to help you determine that you indeed have a Honey Bee Swarm (for bees in your walls of your house see below). Regardless, do not spray them! Visit the links below to find a beekeeper in your area. Beekeepers like to recover swarms and help others in the process. If you hang around they'll teach you some things about bees too. They will need to know from you the particulars like, "I have a swarm of bees the size of a football, hanging in a bush, two feet from the ground, in my front yard at 5555 East Main St, Irmo, SC." A beekeeper will come out, hive them, and move them to where they will have the greatest chance of survival.

Are they Honey Bees?

If you are unsure whether you have honey bees please visit ourAll About Bees page to determine if what you are seeing is actually honey bees. If you are seeing is a honey bee swarm then email us here to contact our swarm call coordinatorto arrange for swarm removal. If you have bees in the walls of your home skip to the section below titled "Bees in Buildings and Trees."

Swarms

Swarms of honey bees are usually very
temporary occurrences. They may be present in your yard for just a few
hours or several days. During this time, honey bees are usually quite
calm. They are simply waiting to move on to their new home. If, after
having ascertained they are honey bees, you feel you would prefer to
have the bees removed, email us here with the details and leave your phone number for us to contact you. We will attempt to find a beekeeper close to your location.

Bees in Buildings and Trees

Occasionally, bees or wasps will make their
home within your walls or a tree on your property. While getting them out may be tricky, it is
worth finding out if it is possible. Read more about why you should
have them removed instead of exterminating them below. Typically beekeepers do not do removals
from structures or trees, but some do. Removals from homes are most often a fee
for service situation. To assist you in your search, use the external
link below to find a beekeeper or business that can help you remove
unwanted bees from your structure or tree. The list will take you to a nationally maintained list of South Carolina beekeepers that includes individuals and businesses that do removals, etc.
Mid-State Beekeepers Association does not recommend, make referrals, or
try to connect beekeepers and homeowners for removals from structures. Removals
necessitate a specific skill set not taught in beekeeping and because of
this we do not want to give the impression of sending someone that, in
fact, may or may not possess those skills. You will find on the national list (below) both individuals and local businesses that wish to be contacted for cutouts or removals. To insure you are protected, we
recommend you consider experience, contractor licenses, insurance, and satisfy yourself with the business or individual prior to entering into a contract for services.

Reasons to NOT sprayinsecticides on honey bee swarms, or when found inside your home.

Last
year, while responding to honey bee swarm calls, on more than one
occasion I arrived only to find that the owner had already sprayed
insecticide on the bees. This is almost always a bad idea for several
reasons.

First, if it's a swarm, local beekeepers will typically
gladly lend a hand to help you remove the bees and often at little or no
charge. You get the bees removed, save yourself and your family
exposure to insecticide, and get to feel good about saving one of our
environment's most valued pollinators.

If the bees have
established a colony within your home things get more complex. Always
consult the advice of a bee removal service before spraying
insecticides. Last year, I responded to a swarm call that turned out to
be an established colony in a home. The lady of the house was standing
outside the home spraying the colony entrance with insecticide. She had
already depleted one can and was working on her second. While it may
have been as easy as removing a small piece of soffet to extract the
bees, I no longer was going to risk bringing back chemically laden
bees to my home bee yard. But there is more to it that that. Aside from
all her children standing around getting a good dose of the overspray
from the can, she was killing the flying bees which feed and support the hive.
This meant that thousands of larvae would die shortly thereafter and
leave her with a rotting odor inside her home in the days that followed.

Another
call I received in late summer had me arrive to find an
inpatient landlord spraying inside an attic. He told me that he
determined that the bees clustered on the outside were actually entering
the house and had established a hive in the attic. He thanked me for
coming, but said he didn't have time to wait as he hoped to have the
house rented later that day. Before leaving I told him that unless he
wanted a damaged ceiling, drywall and furnishings, he should consider
having the hive removed because without the bees fanning the wax
comb, the comb would melt releasing perhaps gallons of honey, and he'd
be receiving complains from his new tenants. (not to mention the smell
of decaying bees and larva and attracting ants, roaches, and other pests for months to come).

In closing, consider that spraying
the bees is apooreffort to quickly eliminate a complex problem, and will
often lead to more expensive problems in the days that follow. The time
spent consulting a local beekeeper or bee removal service first is time well
invested.

Thank you so much for contacting SC Mid-State Beekeepers Association (MSBA). This email may not be checked daily as the secretary is a volunteer position, but we will respond to your message as soon as possible.

Please email David Gobbel at DFGobbelJr@aol.com if you find a swarm and need someone to collect it safely and quickly.